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A Program Director’s dream length aircheck coming in at about 3 and a half minutes, WPHR is the CHR station known as “Power 108”!

Because this is short there is really not much we can say about this. Jim Hart is heard first, he says his goodbye and turns the station over to Calvin Hicks before going into a commercial break.

The best part about this is the station imaging. Nice use of echo effects and almost overdone (some might say it IS overdone to the point of distortion), Power 108 is pounded into the heads of young listeners just like the CHR consultants say it should.

While the station sounds Urban leaning, there’s still lots of mainstream Top 40 hits in the mix. Not that we can tell in a three minute scope, but we heard no Rock, but plenty of beats. Cleveland listeners will set the record straight on this station.

107.9 has been WENZsince June, 1992. The format was Alternative from 1992 to 1999, then Urban from 1992 to present. The station brands itself as Z-107.9. Its official website is here.

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3 Comments

It did flip to a mainstream CHR format in April 1987 in which I believe the owners at the time felt they could make revenue with a format different from Urban. Not to mention filling the void left by WGCL 98.5 (and even WNCX following its aborted original format) and competing with WRQC 92.3 and WKDD 96.5 (plus WMMS during its AOR/CHR years).

Power 108 would get different ownership later in ’87 and soon a new GM, PD and a set of jocks and imaging. Jim Hart was a holdover from WDMT where he was Jammin’ Jimmy Hart. He would later end up at WLTF 106.5. The changes at the stations would prove successful. ’88 through ’91 was when Power was at its best.

Ardman (Meyer Feldman), thought he was going to the moon….But the signal wasn’t strong enough to take him there. You can thank Gary Kneisley for dooming 107.3 and 107.9, to fringe station status, by refusing to move to Parma and locate on the same tower as 107.9. That idiotic move, made both of the stations worthless.